Covering the economic and industrial might of Japan

Tori,
That's a great list of questions.

How about a list of what people should be looking for.

In other words, before I went to Japan, I didn't even know what questions I should be asking.

What kinds of things are availble in Japan? For example, before going to Japan the only martial arts I knew were karate and judo. Is that all their is?

Sometimes the hardest part is knowing what to ask, no?

Fair enough. I've asked myself those questions about my blog, and here are my answers:
1. I think it's easy to find what you're looking for. I've got good navigation and a search box.
2. It's not really innovating, but I'm trying to improve!
3. I usually get some comments so it's becoming a little more interactive.
4. No, I have some loyal readers but nothing I'd describe as a community.
5. The users? They're all lovely people! ;-)
6. I'd say their needs are to be entertained and learn something new at the same time. If they visit my blog, they want to leave with a smile or some knowledge.
7. It's hard to judge if their needs are being met, but if they come back again, I'll assume they are.
8. Since it's a blog, interaction can be narrowed down to actions such as commenting, subscribing, bookmarking, printing, emailing, sharing (social bookmarking), and recommending (i.e. linking to my site). I've tried to accommodate all these on my blog.
9. Whether or not my readers contribute depends on whether I finish a post with a question, a survey, or something else that prompts one of the above actions.

I know my weakest point is promotion. I'm sure there's an audience for the things I write about, but I need to make more of an effort to get my blog seen by the Japan-bloggers' community. Therefore, if I could suggest a 10th question, it would be "Is the site easy to find?".

In response to Bill's comment about making a list of things people should be looking for before they come, I think it's a very good idea. While it would make for a great website in itself, it would be something that the community can direct people to, rather than uniting the community.

It is a great idea, though. Most newcomers to Japan don't know what to expect until they get here. Perhaps we should be passing on our experience, making Japan more transparent, so people can learn more about this great country before they arrive. I actually think bloggers are doing this, but a central Q&A site would obviously solve the problem of not knowing what to ask!

Here's a thought, a bit off-topic, but one thing that would help the Japan bloggers community would be blogger get-togethers. I know there's a "JapanBloggers" group on Yahoo, but they always meet up in Tokyo. It would be great to have a shared, online map on which we can mark off our locations and find people who are physically near us. I think it's possible with Google's "My Maps".

I think Nick has two great ideas. I, for one, would like to know if there is anyone else writing about Japan geographically near me.

The other idea is one somebody could make some money off of...if that is what motivates them, too.

Perhaps others are familiar with the sites Answers.com and eHow. If someone has the time and the expertise, a JapanAnswers or JHow site or something along those lines would be a great idea, no?

I wish I knew how to set up and maintain sites. I'd do it.

Is there anybody that can? Tori?

How about a list of what people should be looking for.

That's a good point.
For people in Japan already the questions are clear: "I need to figure out XYZ, but how?"

But newbies probably have no idea what to ask. Simon at Tresu.blogspot.com (who commented on another post) comes to mind. Most people would not expect that much of Japan is not handicap-friendly, they might not even know to ask.

So how can we educate future foreigners? I guess that is the question, right?

"Most newcomers to Japan don't know what to expect until they get here. Perhaps we should be passing on our experience, making Japan more transparent, so people can learn more about this great country before they arrive. I actually think bloggers are doing this, but a central Q&A site would obviously solve the problem of not knowing what to ask!"

Answers.com and eHow. If someone has the time and the expertise, a JapanAnswers or JHow site or something along those lines would be a great idea, no?

uh oh. I suspect someone is rushing out right now to buy those domain names :)

Answers and eHow are good. What about wikipedia?
Copying these sites should not be too difficult.

Also, (this is getting ahead of myself a little bit) I would love a 43things.com for the Japan-related web. 43things let's you list all the things you want to do and then you can find other people who also want to do them. Plus people list the things they have done and you can ask them for advice about doing it too!

I think a get together would be an excellent idea!

Hi Harvey!

Is that only to the cool Kansai people? :P

Tori..I'd buy the Jhow site, build it, use it...IF I had the time and the KnowHow....

@Bill (and also, Nick)

Ok. I wasn't going to mention this until later in the series but I had better let the cat out of the bag.

Actually, I have been working on something similar (sort of similar) to what you and Nick are talking about, Japanopedia.org. I think I mentioned it to you before but it was brand new at the time. It is still a bit of a mess, but I have been working on it a little more lately and I wanted to mention it in the series.

I'm not sure if this is what you were thinking of at all, it is wiki-based so anyone can edit it. There is a way to freeze pages, so that they cannot be edit (or editted by non-registered users, etc.) but supposedly freezing pages can hurt the community. If you let people edit freely and they vandalise the site it is not problem (not that bad of a problem) because wikis archive all of the page edits, so you can revert to a perviously saved version.

Japanopedia is hosted by wikia.com which is from the creators of wikipedia. The great thing about that is they maintain all of the software and hardware. Also it means that none of the contributors really "own" the site. That is a plus for me because I wanted to create something central, that anyone could contribute to. And I figured that if others thought, "he's just doing it to get XYZ" then they would not contribute. This way they know that I don't get anything more from it than they do, we are all equal partners (we all own it).

My hopes for this site a sky high. I think that it can truly be a place where anyone can brainstorm anything Japan-related. It is the "whiteboard" that I hinted at in the comments section on post #2.

My main goals of the project are to:
- Create a thorough "Japan survival guide"
- create a database with short descriptions of as many Japan-related sites as possible
- create a place where people can @Bill (and also, Nick)

wow. that was a long comment...my fingers are tired :)

What do you guys think?

@ Tori,
That's a great idea and one I would be delighted to participate in.

I think this is worthy of a post in and of itself to give it more attention.

Please keep me updated on the progress and let me know if/how I can help out.

@ RSON

Will do. Maybe some of our ideas (about writing down niches, questions newbies should ask, etc.) could be brainstormed using the wiki. But I'll need a little time to work on it first.

@ Nick (9 questions),
Your blog is definitely a great example (especially for wordpress bloggers). You have a lot of good plugins that are helpful for the readers.
(Here I go letting the cat out of the bag again)
Later on, at the end of this series, I am think about having a "Japan-site Makeover" project. I don't want to give too many details now, but one thing I will say is that any site that wants to receive feedback I will post about them and then everyone can give their advice. I hope you will give your advice at that point too, you definitely know what you are doing.